Parts of Bolton could be without a bus service after a local company threatened to pull its vehicles off the road after a violent attack.
A pair of youths threw bricks through the windows of a passing Maytree Travel bus and when the driver stopped to check his passengers were unhurt they attacked again, pinning a 71-year-old passenger to the side of the bus and raining blows onto him.
This is already the tenth attack by vandals on Maytree’s buses in 2012 — one more than they had in the whole of 2011. Police are investigating the attack and are urging anyone with information to get in touch.
Maytree’s managing director Gary Hawthorne said he was stunned by the latest incident and threatened to take all his Bolton drivers off the road if there is a repeat.
Mr Hawthorne said: “This is an horrific attack and I am staggered that they have done this to such an elderly man.
“Vandals are attacking our buses day in day out and things are worse now than they have ever been. We even had to divert one of our bus routes in Deane throughout January while the police dealt with the issue and who knows where it will end?
“If this keeps happening, we will have no option but
to take our buses off the road, to keep our drivers and passengers safe.”
Maytree was founded as a family-run firm in 2009 and has 25 buses serving 30 routes across Bolton .
Police are currently looking for the two youths aged between 18 and 22 years.
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